Hearing his call: Cummings athlete overcomes impairment to play college football

Cummings High School senior Ricardo Guerrero is headed to Gallaudet.

Sam Roberts / Times-News

By Conor O’Neill / Times-News

Published: Sunday, June 8, 2014 at 01:05 AM.

Ricardo Guerrero’s to-do list as he prepares to play college football this summer is a bit different from most linemen entering college.

Sure, Guerrero shares common goals of becoming stronger, gaining weight and becoming quicker, while staying healthy. Now that he has recovered from an ankle injury suffered in wrestling, Guerrero started running in the past month.

But here’s where Guerrero stands out: Learning sign language is on the docket for the Cummings High School senior.

Guerrero is deaf and is headed to Gallaudet University, a school for the hearing impaired in Washington, D.C., to play football.

It’s quite a journey for someone who hadn’t given thought to playing college football until January.

“I would never have imagined (going to college for football),” Guerrero said. “By the time I was a senior, and last semester, that’s when I thought I could play for Gallaudet. I thought it was over with (at the end of the season).”

Guerrero has had cochlear implants since he was 10 years old. The small, electronic device consists of an external portion that rests behind the ear and a second portion that is surgically placed under the skin.

The impairment has done little to hinder Guerrero, who was a standout on the Cavaliers wrestling team for three seasons and started along the offensive line this past season for the football team. Guerrero is also in the top 10 in this week’s graduating class.

“He’s really a team person, one of the team captains,” Cummings wrestling coach Andy Hawks said. “He’s a really likable kid. All his classmates, teammates and teachers liked him. He set the example. He’s a great kid and that’s the bottom line.”

Football was not an option for Guerrero, who’s 5-foot-10, 265 pounds, until his junior year at Cummings because his parents were concerned about injuries.

Guerrero convinced them to let him join the wrestling team as a sophomore.

Hawks remembers Guerrero’s first match well.

“He looked good in the first match, but sometimes he looked kind of bewildered,” Hawks said, noting that Guerrero couldn’t wear his cochlear implant because it could be damaged. “I was standing on a chair yelling at him.

“Then we said, ‘Why are we yelling at him? Oh, that’s right, he can’t hear a thing we’re saying.’ ”

After that first match — a loss, because Guerrero “didn’t know what to do,” he admitted — Hawks developed a system of numbers that corresponded to moves for Guerrero to execute in his bouts.

As long as Guerrero could see Hawks, the coach could flash a number that would represent the suggested move.

Equipped with the means to receive instructions during matches, Guerrero thrived as a wrestler.

“I had this one match where I was about to lose by one point, and the time was almost over,” Guerrero said. “I just looked over to my coach and he told me to do a move and I did the move and I won. It was exciting and from then on, I just said ‘I’m going to look at him.’ ”

Wrestling opened the door for Guerrero to join the football program at Cummings in his junior year.

He spent that season as a starter on the junior varsity, using hand signals to communicate with his teammates. Guerrero said those signals were “easy, so I got them all right.”

But he was worried about moving up to the varsity team.

“After he played his JV year, he came to us and said he didn’t think he was going to play because he thought his hearing impairment was going to get in the way of him being able to make calls and all that,” offensive coordinator Jay Perdue said. “So we said, ‘Hey man, you might want to wait a second on that. We think you can play, we like your intangibles. We’ll figure out a way to make it work.’ ”

That meant creating a similar system to the one from wrestling, with teammates in the trenches helping Guerrero along the way.

Guerrero played both offensive and defensive line for the Cavaliers, with arm and hand signals from teammates guiding him. He didn’t need any help to look down the line of scrimmage and move on the snap because he was already quick off the ball, Hawks said.

“By my senior year I started playing for varsity and that’s when everything gets more intense, because I played with the big guys,” said Guerrero, his eyes lighting up when mentioning the big guys. “I was nervous because I had never played with that level, but I got the idea of what it would look like.”

“Plus, I had been wrestling for 10th grade and junior year, and I was wrestling for heavyweight, so I got the idea of how it was going to be like when I pushed against a tackle.”

The list of injuries Guerrero suffered included to both knees, both ankles and his right arm in wrestling. The only football injury he suffered was a thumb injury.

“That’s what made my parents OK with me playing football in college,” Guerrero said.

Former Cummings coach Steve Johnson and Perdue contacted the Gallaudet coaching staff about Guerrero, sending tapes and transcripts. When the interest was deemed mutual, part of the coaching staff paid a visit to Burlington.

“They came down and the coach, I was sitting in there when he made mention of, ‘Imagine how well you’re doing with the hearing impairment,’ ” Perdue said. “ ‘Imagine if you’re at Gallaudet, where we’ve got everything that can help you.’ How much further do you think you can go?’ ”

That convinced Guerrero to take a visit to the campus. Once there, he was sold.

“It was awesome. Everybody signs, some are hard of hearing, some can hear, some can talk, some don’t talk,” Guerrero said. “It’s a good place for any deaf person, really. It doesn’t have to be for a deaf person, it can be for anyone who knows sign language.”

Now, Guerrero is ready to continue a career in football that needed parental approval before starting and was thought to have ended six months ago.

“I try to wear my hearing aid for football, but sometimes all that sweating turns it off, so I can hear nothing. That’s the point where I have to look at signals,” Guerrero said. “I think looking at signals is better than using a hearing aid. It’s easier than hearing it.

“From now on, I’ll just play deaf and look at the signal. That’s what they give you in Gallaudet.”

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Ricardo Guerrero’s to-do list as he prepares to play college football this summer is a bit different from most linemen entering college.

Sure, Guerrero shares common goals of becoming stronger, gaining weight and becoming quicker, while staying healthy. Now that he has recovered from an ankle injury suffered in wrestling, Guerrero started running in the past month.

But here’s where Guerrero stands out: Learning sign language is on the docket for the Cummings High School senior.

Guerrero is deaf and is headed to Gallaudet University, a school for the hearing impaired in Washington, D.C., to play football.

It’s quite a journey for someone who hadn’t given thought to playing college football until January.

“I would never have imagined (going to college for football),” Guerrero said. “By the time I was a senior, and last semester, that’s when I thought I could play for Gallaudet. I thought it was over with (at the end of the season).”

Guerrero has had cochlear implants since he was 10 years old. The small, electronic device consists of an external portion that rests behind the ear and a second portion that is surgically placed under the skin.

The impairment has done little to hinder Guerrero, who was a standout on the Cavaliers wrestling team for three seasons and started along the offensive line this past season for the football team. Guerrero is also in the top 10 in this week’s graduating class.

“He’s really a team person, one of the team captains,” Cummings wrestling coach Andy Hawks said. “He’s a really likable kid. All his classmates, teammates and teachers liked him. He set the example. He’s a great kid and that’s the bottom line.”

Football was not an option for Guerrero, who’s 5-foot-10, 265 pounds, until his junior year at Cummings because his parents were concerned about injuries.

Guerrero convinced them to let him join the wrestling team as a sophomore.

Hawks remembers Guerrero’s first match well.

“He looked good in the first match, but sometimes he looked kind of bewildered,” Hawks said, noting that Guerrero couldn’t wear his cochlear implant because it could be damaged. “I was standing on a chair yelling at him.

“Then we said, ‘Why are we yelling at him? Oh, that’s right, he can’t hear a thing we’re saying.’ ”

After that first match — a loss, because Guerrero “didn’t know what to do,” he admitted — Hawks developed a system of numbers that corresponded to moves for Guerrero to execute in his bouts.

As long as Guerrero could see Hawks, the coach could flash a number that would represent the suggested move.

Equipped with the means to receive instructions during matches, Guerrero thrived as a wrestler.

“I had this one match where I was about to lose by one point, and the time was almost over,” Guerrero said. “I just looked over to my coach and he told me to do a move and I did the move and I won. It was exciting and from then on, I just said ‘I’m going to look at him.’ ”

Wrestling opened the door for Guerrero to join the football program at Cummings in his junior year.

He spent that season as a starter on the junior varsity, using hand signals to communicate with his teammates. Guerrero said those signals were “easy, so I got them all right.”

But he was worried about moving up to the varsity team.

“After he played his JV year, he came to us and said he didn’t think he was going to play because he thought his hearing impairment was going to get in the way of him being able to make calls and all that,” offensive coordinator Jay Perdue said. “So we said, ‘Hey man, you might want to wait a second on that. We think you can play, we like your intangibles. We’ll figure out a way to make it work.’ ”

That meant creating a similar system to the one from wrestling, with teammates in the trenches helping Guerrero along the way.

Guerrero played both offensive and defensive line for the Cavaliers, with arm and hand signals from teammates guiding him. He didn’t need any help to look down the line of scrimmage and move on the snap because he was already quick off the ball, Hawks said.

“By my senior year I started playing for varsity and that’s when everything gets more intense, because I played with the big guys,” said Guerrero, his eyes lighting up when mentioning the big guys. “I was nervous because I had never played with that level, but I got the idea of what it would look like.”

“Plus, I had been wrestling for 10th grade and junior year, and I was wrestling for heavyweight, so I got the idea of how it was going to be like when I pushed against a tackle.”

The list of injuries Guerrero suffered included to both knees, both ankles and his right arm in wrestling. The only football injury he suffered was a thumb injury.

“That’s what made my parents OK with me playing football in college,” Guerrero said.

Former Cummings coach Steve Johnson and Perdue contacted the Gallaudet coaching staff about Guerrero, sending tapes and transcripts. When the interest was deemed mutual, part of the coaching staff paid a visit to Burlington.

“They came down and the coach, I was sitting in there when he made mention of, ‘Imagine how well you’re doing with the hearing impairment,’ ” Perdue said. “ ‘Imagine if you’re at Gallaudet, where we’ve got everything that can help you.’ How much further do you think you can go?’ ”

That convinced Guerrero to take a visit to the campus. Once there, he was sold.

“It was awesome. Everybody signs, some are hard of hearing, some can hear, some can talk, some don’t talk,” Guerrero said. “It’s a good place for any deaf person, really. It doesn’t have to be for a deaf person, it can be for anyone who knows sign language.”

Now, Guerrero is ready to continue a career in football that needed parental approval before starting and was thought to have ended six months ago.

“I try to wear my hearing aid for football, but sometimes all that sweating turns it off, so I can hear nothing. That’s the point where I have to look at signals,” Guerrero said. “I think looking at signals is better than using a hearing aid. It’s easier than hearing it.

“From now on, I’ll just play deaf and look at the signal. That’s what they give you in Gallaudet.”